Page 5182 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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Residents Rally policy, Mr Collaery, was wrong on this issue and it will be proven to be so. The Government will regret removing this provision in the legislation. Not only will it make the attendance on the board unattractive to the top end of the town, but also it will make it impossible for people on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale to participate.
One wonders whether this will now be the general policy the Government will adopt across the board - the sort of policy which Dr Hector Kinloch complains about in respect of the arts board. It seemed to me at one stage, just for a moment there, that Dr Kinloch was going to support the Government's Bill. But I see that Mrs Nolan is doing her job well; she has whipped him into shape. I am sure now that Government members will appreciate the role that Mrs Nolan plays. After all, last week when she went away they fell into disarray because they have not paid enough attention to training and development, and Mr Jensen missed out.
The fact of the matter is that this proposition, as I have said, is stupid, because it ensures that there will be no interest from ordinary community members in participation on the Board of Health - a board which will dictate in many ways the future of hospital services in the Territory; a board which will dictate the implementation of the philosophical position of the conservative Government opposite, a philosophical position which guarantees that there will be fewer public hospital services available to the ordinary person in the street; a board that will have to suffer the transfer of public hospital services to the private sector; and a board that will have to suffer the loss of other services which have previously been provided by other boards of health.
The fact of the matter is that this Government has ensured that the community will not be fairly represented on its Board of Health. But the most interesting part about it was the little game that Michael Moore played to trap Bernard Collaery. I must say that I am not surprised that Michael Moore left the Residents Rally when they have policies like that. But he has trapped his former colleague Mr Collaery, and Mr Collaery has rushed around and whipped the Government up and had them agree that there should be no remuneration and allowances for board members - a stupid decision, a stupid policy born out of stupid circumstances.
The Residents Rally seeks to represent the middle classes in this town, who it thinks would be able to afford to give their services and time free to the delivery of important services to the community and the Territory. Nobody should be asked to do that. They should not be asked to give up their own resources in the public interest.
Mr Stefaniak: Why not? Whatever happened to community-mindedness?
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